Coach Therrien making most of second chance with Habs

Michel Therrien has done a remarkable job turning the Canadiens around this season in his second stint behind the Habs’ bench.

After finishing last in the Eastern Conference last season with a 31-35-16 record, the Canadiens clinched a playoff spot with a 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on April 11. The Canadiens (26-9-5) also moved into first place in the Northeast Division with the victory.

I remember interviewing Therrien in 2005 when he was coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins’ AHL farm team in Wilkes-Barre after being fired by the Canadiens. I asked him if he had any regrets from his time in Montreal.

“My one big regret is that I was not able to coach Francis Bouillon when I was there,” said Therrien, who posted a 77-91-22 record in parts of three seasons in his first stint behind the Canadiens’ bench after taking over from Alain Vigneault 20 games into the 2000-01 campaign.

“I did the job with my best knowledge when I was there,” Therrien added. “It was not an easy situation when me and (general manager) Andre Savard got there. The team was in last place, if you can remember. The next year, we made the playoffs (for the first time in four years). I’m proud of what I did when I was in Montreal.”

Below is the column I wrote following that interview:

(Photo by Allen McInnis/The Gazette)

Therrien wants back in NHL

PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE ON DEC. 4, 2005

STU COWAN
GAZETTE SPORTS EDITOR

Michel Therrien says he has only one regret about his days as head coach of the Canadiens.

“My one big regret is that I was not able to coach Francis Bouillon when I was there,” said Therrien, who posted a 77-91-22 record in parts of three seasons behind the Canadiens’ bench after taking over from Alain Vigneault 20 games into the 2000-01 campaign.

“I did the job with my best knowledge when I was there,” Therrien added. “It was not an easy situation when me and (general manager) Andre Savard got there. The team was in last place, if you can remember. The next year, we made the playoffs (for the first time in four years). I’m proud of what I did when I was in Montreal.”

While Therrien won’t be remembered as one of the great coaches in Canadiens history, Bouillon probably wouldn’t be in the NHL today if it weren’t for Therrien.

Therrien was Bouillon’s coach throughout his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League career, starting in 1992-93 with the Laval Titan before they both moved to the Granby Predateurs for the 1995-96 season, becoming the first Quebec team in 25 years to win the Memorial Cup. Therrien still remembers the day he named Bouillon the Predateurs’ captain.

“It’s a pretty funny story,” Therrien recalled in a recent telephone interview from Pennsylvania, where he is now coach of the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. “He was not the captain when we started the season. We sat down together and I asked him what it would mean for him to be captain of our team. And he was giving me all the right answers: ‘I have to lead by example, I have to work hard, I have to do this, I have do do that.’ I said ‘You forgot something.’ He said ‘What?’ I said ‘You have to want to be the first guy to lift the Memorial Cup.’ That was our goal, and he did it, 25 years after Guy Lafleur (with the Quebec Remparts).”

Therrien admits when he first saw the 5-foot-8 Bouillon in Laval, he didn’t think he could become an NHL defenceman.

“At 17, I couldn’t have seen him playing in the NHL,” Therrien said. “At 17, he wasn’t playing every game, but he was still working hard during practice and he started to pick up his game when he was 18 years old. At 19, he was a dominant player in junior and at 20 he was really dominant. That’s when I started to think he was capable of playing in the NHL.”

Unfortunately, nobody else did and Bouillon was never drafted by an NHL team. But when Therrien was named coach of the Canadiens’ AHL farm team in Fredericton for the 1997-98 season, he didn’t forget about Bouillon.

“When I was hired by Montreal, I asked the organization to offer him an American Hockey League contract,” Therrien said. “I remember the first year, I was told that he’s a good junior player, but probably not good enough to play in the American Hockey League.”

At the time, the Canadiens shared their farm team in Fredericton with the Los Angeles Kings, and Therrien was told there was no room for a player like Bouillon, who spent his first two years after junior playing for the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League and the Quebec Rafales of the International Hockey League. He even played roller-hockey for the Montreal Roadrunners.

“But as soon as Montreal was by itself in Fredericton (for the 1998-99 season), I pushed again to get him a chance to play in the American Hockey League,” Therrien said. “He played fantastic for us, was part of the all-star team, and the next year he started to play some games in the NHL.

“I’m glad for him, because that’s a kid I always believed in, even if he was not a 6-foot-2 defenceman,” Therrien added. “He has so much heart and he worked so hard to achieve his goal to play in the NHL. When people ask me if I have regrets, that’s probably my biggest regret, not to be able to be together in the NHL.”

But Therrien is hoping to change that, with his sights set on a second shot at an NHL coaching job. And his performance in the AHL isn’t hurting his chances.

Therrien took over the Pittsburgh Penguins’ farm team for the 2003-04 season, leading them to the Calder Cup final. Last season, the AHL Penguins lost in the second round of the playoffs and this season they are simply the best team in the league, despite having nine rookies in the lineup. Heading into last night’s game against Norfolk, the Penguins had yet to lose a game this season in regulation time, with 19 wins and two overtime losses in 21 games.

Therrien says he’s a different coach now than when he was fired and replaced by Claude Julien on Jan. 17, 2003, after the Canadiens got off to an 18-24-4 start.

“You change over the years. When I was in Montreal, I was 36 years old, now I just turned 42 … oh my God!” he said with a chuckle. “You change, you mature, you’re a different guy. But I’m still a competitor. I still want to win and I still try to push those guys. You get more experience, but I’ll always have the same passion.”

For now, he’s happy with the job he’s doing in the AHL.

“When you’re winning, it’s always fun,” he said. “I’m enjoying my time here, but there’s no doubt about it, my goal is to get back to the NHL.”

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